Letters: Post-Sandy rhetoric masks wretched housing policies

Rather than focus on the potential impacts of Gov. Christie's willingness to go beyond partisan politics to take care of his people after superstorm Sandy, I would feel far more supportive of our governor if the now-hidden policies that he has supported were addressed in this new light of Sandy's devastation.

Sheer rhetoric cannot cloud the reality of the governor's thwarted effort to move all the state's Affordable Housing Trust Funds into the general state budget. For Ocean County, this would amount to $14 million toward affordable housing.

Nor can the governor's presence at the scenes of destroyed homes take the place of his efforts to exclude wealthy municipalities from their responsibility to build a required number of low- to moderate-income housing in their towns; choosing, rather, to palm off such needed housing to other towns in his attempt to reject the state's Mount Laurel decision.

Now we are faced with the reality of much needed housing. Not only the governor, but our Ocean County freeholders bear some of the responsibility, as they have heretofore refused to address the need for affordable housing, shelters and rapid rehousing for the growing homeless population in Ocean County.

Time after time, they have refused to establish a county homeless trust fund for the acquisition, construction or rehabilitation of housing and for rental assistance vouchers.

The work of our county's volunteers in the face of this disaster has been nothing short of tremendous. But charity must never be a substitute for justice.

Joan Finn

Waretown

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Letters: Post-Sandy rhetoric masks wretched housing policies

Rather than focus on the potential impacts of Gov.

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